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• Developing a Patient centred Digital Social Care Record

  by Nicholas Kelly , about 6 years ago

  Respect Care is a family run care agency providing care to Service Users within local authorities and private sector in London and the South East.

  Respect Care came to Axela Innovations to devise an appropriate and well fitting technology that diminished risk for their managers who needed a patient data system to be accessible 24 hours a day.

  They already used a care management system and understood the fields of data that needed to be captured. However, after the initial meeting with them, two things became clear. Firstly, although they had defined their need to cover all types of client... Continue reading

  Respect Care is a family run care agency providing care to Service Users within local authorities and private sector in London and the South East.

  Respect Care came to Axela Innovations to devise an appropriate and well fitting technology that diminished risk for their managers who needed a patient data system to be accessible 24 hours a day.

  They already used a care management system and understood the fields of data that needed to be captured. However, after the initial meeting with them, two things became clear. Firstly, although they had defined their need to cover all types of client services such as home from hospital and ongoing care, plus the CQC mandatory reporting, they had not identified the main problem which was that of the time taken to complete the initial assessment, often this being in excess of 5 hours.

  We spent time with Respect Care getting to know the organisation and understanding how they work. We helped Respect Care establish a common language for dealing with clients so that all staff knew exactly what the terminology meant. Then we helped formalise their working practices into protocols (which they turned into a manual and use to train staff on the new system) so that everyone knew what was expected of them, and when it was expected.

  What we delivered was a customised version of cAIr:ID our care assessment, care management, risk assessment and medication system. Because cAIr:ID is web-based, all the Respect Care staff can securely access it at any time.

  All they need is a laptop with an Internet connection. Respect Care’s data is centralised on a secure cloud database that we designed and built, so that cAIr:ID sophisticated reporting facility provides the latest up-to-the minute data to all levels of the organisation, from head office to front-line staff.

  Implementing cAIr:ID meant that for the first time, managers could easily analyse and monitor staff caseloads. Reporting to Head Office and to funders became far simpler since all data is instantly available. Staff benefit from a friendly interface that gives them easy access to their client needs, and cAIr:ID supports staff on a daily basis with alerts and prompts, helping staff stay up-to-date with their caseload activities.

  Skills

  Co-production, Stakeholder Research, Workflow Mapping, Patient Engagement

• REVOLUTIONISING COMMUNICATIONS ACROSS HEALTH AND CARE

  by Dr Sandeep Bansal, about 6 years ago

  INTRODUCTION

  For decades radio pagers have been used across the NHS as a robust method of communication. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was no exception and relied on the one-way messaging system.

  West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is a highly successful, award-winning trust providing hospital and community services to a population of around 280,000 people who live in west Suffolk. It is one of the UK's leading foundation trusts, with a 430-bed hospital. It was selected by NHS England as a Global Digital Exemplar for delivering exceptional care, efficiently, through the use of world-class digital technology and information.

  The trust... Continue reading

  INTRODUCTION

  For decades radio pagers have been used across the NHS as a robust method of communication. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was no exception and relied on the one-way messaging system.

  West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is a highly successful, award-winning trust providing hospital and community services to a population of around 280,000 people who live in west Suffolk. It is one of the UK's leading foundation trusts, with a 430-bed hospital. It was selected by NHS England as a Global Digital Exemplar for delivering exceptional care, efficiently, through the use of world-class digital technology and information.

  The trust identified that the pager system was not fit for the modern healthcare workforce and the people they care for.

  The problem is that the recipient does not know who is bleeping, why they are bleeping, or the level of urgency. This led to patient care being interrupted, time being wasted and made prioritisation difficult.

  The trust also did not want frontline staff to turn to non-approved communication tools to fill the gap created by pagers. A solution was needed that satisfied NHS Information Governance (IG) whilst giving staff a modern-day alternative in the form of a secure messaging application.

  Dr Nick Jenkins, Medical Director at the trust, explains:

  “Everyone uses WhatsApp as it is so much easier, but it doesn’t meet the confidentiality standards of the NHS. As a medical director

  I couldn’t sanction it, so I started looking for an alternative.“

  Armed with this knowledge and commitment to patient safety and clinical excellence, the trust explored if there was a different option that could improve the quality and efficiency of service delivery for patients, whilst saving time and improving working life for their staff.

  Jenna Sendall, Speech Therapist, explains what replacing the pager system means for her:

  “Using Medic Bleep instead of the old pagers is fantastic. It allows us to create groups within the speech therapy department and the sub- teams, which is great because we can communicate with our colleagues really easily. We can see when a message has been delivered and read, so we know if it has been actioned, which is brilliant.”

  The Trust partnered with Medic Creations in 2017 to pilot a secure healthcare communication solution called Medic Bleep. The pilot was conducted across three acute wards in conjunction with community midwives.

  Recently Iin February 2019, the Health and Social Care Secretary of State, Matt Hancock, announcement announced that all NHS trusts will be required to phase out pagers by the end of 2021.

  The pilot formed the basis of a study which monitored the ease and time taken to communicate for healthcare professionals between themselves, using the pager-based system and Medic Bleep. This peer-reviewed study, published in the Digital Health Journal, found that on average nurses saved 21 minutes per shift and junior doctors saved 48 minutes per shift using Medic Bleep. The results show that Medic Bleep reduced time spent on the tasks requiring interpersonal communication, with efficiencies being seen in everyday tasks, such as: patient admissions, reviews, discharges and medication dispensation.

  Helen Boulton, Trauma Nurse Practitioner, says:

  “Medic Bleep gives you a trail of communication. Sometimes you’ll be really busy and you’ll get a couple of bleeps through, so you can read them and reply. And if it isn’t urgent you can reply within a few minutes.”

  The participating doctors and nurses completed a questionnaire about their experience of Medic Bleep compared to the traditional pager.

  This revealed that the healthcare professionals felt the use of Medic Bleep may offer a better quality of work life, citing reasons such as:

  Easier, less frustrating communication

  Ability to see more patients

  More time for patient care

  Less distraction in workflow, through the ability to triage tasks and reduce bottlenecks

  
  

  Since the pilot, the trust and Medic Creations worked together closely to make sure everyone was fully on board with the transformation and the robust infrastructure was in place.

  
  

  BESPOKE SOLUTION

  During the implementation process, the project team mapped out key communication pathways and processes in conjunction with healthcare staff to identify areas where efficiencies can be made, but also to ensure that a bespoke solution was created, specific to West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

  Mike Bone, CIO at the trust, said:

  "Part of being a global digital exemplar was to encourage innovation and look at better ways of using technology and exploiting it to improve clinical experience in the patient journey...it quickly became apparent that Medic Bleep has huge potential.”

  
  

  GOVERNANCE AND CLINICAL SAFETY

  Information must be complete, secure and accurate for a healthcare organisation to deliver excellent patient care. Both Medic Creations and the Trust are committed to IG best practice and treat information as a valued strategic asset. Care teams are now able to exchange patient data whilst adhering to the principles of integrity, security and interoperability.

  Digitisation of data naturally attracts added clinical risk. Medic Bleep worked with the Trust to ensure that any added clinical risk was mitigated through a careful and dynamic risk assessment mandated by the Health & Social Care Act called DCB0160 and DCB0129. This remains a dynamic and collaborative process making sure that Medic Bleep is safe and that any clinical risk is mitigated to prevent patient harm.

  COMMUNICATING THE CHANGE

  Naturally there was a degree of caution towards change, particularly regarding changes to working practice. Historically staff have not been allowed to use smartphones in a clinical setting and there were some concerns that patients would not like this.

  The trust and Medic Creations delivered thorough staff training and drop-in sessions to help build confidence in using Medic Bleep and counter change fear. It was also important to communicate the change with patients, to explain why healthcare professionals are using smartphone at the bedside, to help mitigate the risk of negative experience for patients.

  BRING-YOUR-OWN-DEVICE (BYOD)

  The trust adopted a BYOD strategy with a robust policy that permits staff to use their own smartphones and also provided a small number of managed devices for staff that didn’t own a smartphone or did not want to use their own device. Despite some staff stating concerns before Go-Live, the vast majority of staff have opted to use their own device and patient surveys have not revealed any issues with perception about their use around patients.

  Medic Bleep also has a browser (web) interface, so staff have the full flexibility of using a smartphone or desktop as they go about their work.

  
  

  
  

  West Suffolk NHS Trust Staff

  embraced BYOD working with: 67% of staff finding Medic Bleep

  Easy to Implement

  An increase in 24% staff found that their discharge management plan was completed with greater efficiency

  
  

  James Catton, Physician Associate, explains what it’s like using Medic Bleep:

  “Medic Bleep has sped everything up. It makes it a lot quicker for me to talk to my colleagues across the trust.

  I don’t necessarily know everybody in this trust, but on Medic Bleep you can find them really quickly through the search function. You can send them a message which has much more detail than a pager ever would have been able to, or if you need to you can speak to them directly through the app on a telephone call.”

  Jenna Sendall, Speech and Language Therapist

  “In terms the wider hospital it has really improved communication and made it quicker, efficient and streamlined the service.”

  West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Medic Creations worked in partnership to provide their patients and staff with a complete, secure and IG compliant communication solution, and went live with Medic Bleep on 24 June 2019, replacing all non-emergency pagers. This was not an easy task and required clear vision, effective leadership and communication throughout the organisation to allow this major change to occur.

  87% WSH Staff will recommend Medic Bleep to their collegues

  Independent economic evaluation conservatively predicts £2.5 million efficiency saving per trust per year.

  
  

• NHS Blood and Transplant empowers employees with a unified service experience

  about 6 years ago

  NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is an essential part of the National Health

  Service (NHS), providing the blood donation service for England and the organ

  donation service for the UK. The organisation manages the donation, storage,

  and transplantation of blood, organs, tissue, bone marrow, and stem cells, and

  researches new treatments and processes.

  
  

  NHSBT employs 5,500 people across the UK who work in a wide variety of

  roles in different settings. These include staff:

  • At blood donation centres and mobile blood collection units

  • That liaise with donor families and organ recipients in hospitals

  • Researchers in NHSBT laboratories

  ... Continue reading

  NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is an essential part of the National Health

  Service (NHS), providing the blood donation service for England and the organ

  donation service for the UK. The organisation manages the donation, storage,

  and transplantation of blood, organs, tissue, bone marrow, and stem cells, and

  researches new treatments and processes.

  
  

  NHSBT employs 5,500 people across the UK who work in a wide variety of

  roles in different settings. These include staff:

  • At blood donation centres and mobile blood collection units

  • That liaise with donor families and organ recipients in hospitals

  • Researchers in NHSBT laboratories

  • Members who carry out operational functions such as HR, finance, and

  facilities management

  
  

  With a purpose to save and improve lives, supporting the NHSBT workforce

  is critical to its successful operation. Wendy Dewey, IT Service Manager, NHS

  Blood and Transplant, explains: “It’s incredibly important that our workforce is

  empowered to focus its time on the activities that support patients, donors,

  and their families. Delivering the services they need to excel in their roles is

  essential to our success.”

  
  

  NHSBT was using the ServiceNow Platform to deliver a number of services to help

  employees, such as the IT service desk and HR support, but Wendy knew

  they were only scratching the surface of what was possible.

  
  

  “ServiceNow was working for each department, but we had a piecemeal

  way of using the platform,” explains Wendy. “There were multiple entry points

  for employees depending on whether they wanted to contact the IT service

  desk, HR department, or finance, for example. We saw a big opportunity to

  bring all our services into a single portal on the platform.”

  NHSBT unifies the employee service experience with a

  self-service portal built on ServiceNow

  
  

  NHSBT launched its new services portal, unifying the employee service

  experience into a single online destination for any member of staff to get the

  help or information they needed.

  Through a web browser, either on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device, employees

  can launch the portal to instantly access a range of organisation-wide services,

  wherever they are.

  For example, they can check holiday allowance with the HR team, query

  a figure on their pay slip, or raise a support request for new IT equipment.

  Workflows and automated processes route the queries to the best team for

  resolution or provide the right information, with no human intervention required.

  “The Now Platform initiated a significant change in the way people interact

  with services and receive the support they need to carry out their role,” says

  Wendy. “We’ve made it easy for employees to engage with the services they

  need to do their job, with a seamless, user-focused experience.”

  
  

  The strategy has brought consistency to service delivery across the organisation.

  All 5,500 employees use the same portal and follow the same process—and that

  means they receive the same, quality employee experience.

  Our workforce is very diverse and dispersed, with employees performing very

  different functions,” says Wendy. “Our unified service portal ensures every

  employee can access the same information and help, regardless of where

  they are, what their role is, and what device they are using.”

  
  

  Creating a sophisticated service environment was also a key objective for

  Wendy and her team, as she explains: “Patient and donor safety and care is

  always first and foremost, but that doesn’t mean we should compromise on the

  quality of services delivered to our employees. Our workforce is NHSBT’s biggest

  asset. With ServiceNow, we made it easy for our employees to work within the

  organisation that employs them and empowered them to contribute.”

  
  

  The organisation carries out three or four key releases every year, with every

  one designed to eliminate more manual processes, speed up the service

  process for employees, and enhance the experience.

  
  

  A steering group owns the way forward, made up of decision makers across

  the organisation to form a multi-discipline team that is empowered to “create

  the art of the possible."

  
  

  “The steering group has started conversations and a collaborative approach

  to working towards a common goal,” says Wendy. “It’s been a springboard to

  really accelerate our strategy for unified service delivery. People are seeing

  the benefits and putting forward business cases as a direct result of their

  own experience.”